Gerallt Evans

Gerallt Evans

Thursday 6 November 2008 19.01 EST
First published on Thursday 6 November 2008 19.01 EST

Just after the war, in 1947, my father, Gerallt Evans, who has died aged 89, became music adviser for Pembrokeshire, for the wild, rugged coastline of which he developed a lifelong passion. He organised school choirs and orchestras, promoted music in the county's scattered communities, and founded a county choir with branches throughout Pembrokeshire's villages; there, people with little formal education came together to perform classics such as Verdi's Requiem. There, too, he forged a lifelong friendship with the visionary poet Waldo Williams, composing the music to Molawd Penfro, Williams' poem to Pembrokeshire.

Then, in 1959, Gerallt moved on to Cardiff, where he became head of music and vice-principal of the Welsh College of Music and Drama. His students were to include the contralto Iris Williams and the actor Anthony Hopkins.

A talented tenor, he gave many performances on BBC radio. For many years he adjudicated at the Welsh National Eisteddfod, where many of his students launched their careers. My sisters and I are still approached by people who remember him as an inspiring teacher.

The son of a nonconformist minister, Gerallt was born in the Neath Valley, moving as a child to Swansea. As with many Welshmen of his generation, music was a means of escape; he was the first of his family to go to university, studying music at what was then the University College of Wales, Cardiff in the 1930s.

Gentle and humorous, Gerallt had a strength of will fostered by his upbringing. It was typical of his quiet resilience that he was a wartime conscientious objector. Instead he became a member of the forces entertainment organisation, Ensa.

His last days were accompanied by soaring solos and choruses from the Eisteddfod, pouring, like sunlight, from his radio. My middle sister told me that he died to Purcell's "Hear my prayer, Oh Lord, and let my crying come unto thee".

He is survived by his wife, Mair, three daughters and seven grandchildren.